German Castles

Of the many things I explored in Germany, the castles were, hands down, what I was most excited about seeing, in particular, King Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle. So imagine my broken heart when I awoke in Munich to morning that looks like this photo to the left. It was 7 degrees celsius and pouring down rain. And I do mean pouring down rain. And it rained all day and non-stop. That would have been okay if we had booked the normal castle tour of Neuschwanstein where we stay nice and dry within the confines of the castle's roof. But not me, not the Outdoorsy Girl! We would take an adventure tour, not the normal.

The adventure included a bike ride around Swan Lake (yes, Peter Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake) and then a hike up a waterfall gorge to the castle. It would take more than heavy rainfall (and snowfall in the Alps) to keep me away from this dream of mine. Only six more people showed up for our tour and we all became good friends before the day was over. Best of all, less people meant that I could get a little closer to our super-duper hot (HAWT, I tell ya!) tour guide Brad, who spoke in the sexiest accent. (He was from South Africa).


Super-duper hawt Brad took this picture of Best Friend and me on our bike ride to Swan Lake. (*sigh* He touched my camera!) The castle is in the backround behind us. I had already ripped my stylish trashbag of a poncho and it would no longer stay upon my head, so I was completely soaked!



We made it to Swan Lake, where we could have taken a swim if we had wished. I didn't see the point in it being as I was as wet as could be already. I didn't see any swans either, but it was still pretty. I could only imagine how nice it tooked on a clear day when you could see the rows of Alpine peaks that the clouds were hiding from us on this day.








After bicycling Swan Lake and a bite of lunch in a warm, cozy restaurant, we began our cold and wet ascent up the waterfall gorge. The bridge clinging to the rock wall on the right hand side of this picture was part of hiking trail.






Our group heads up the trail. That's Brad in front with the yellow poncho. (As if he needed a special color to stand out! Did I mention how hot he was?)

We were getting close to castle level. There, you could walk up to the castle or take a side trail up, up , and up more to the Marienbruke (Mary's Bridge) where you have an excellent view of the castle and into the gorge we just hiked through.




Here's one of the photos I took of the castle from the Marienbruke.









See how happy I am to finally be with my castle?!








From within the castle, I had a view of the Marienbruke where I had just stood taking photos. It gave me some perspective on the hike I had just taken and why I was so tired. (Plus I didn't want to slow down on the hike or else Brad might think I was a wuss.)

We weren't allowed to take pics inside of the castle, but of course I sneaked a few anyway*. They aren't very good, though, so I will exclude them from the post.





After our day of adventuring in the rain and cold, those of us on the tour had become friends and we dined out at the Hofbrauhaus. It was so awesome to meet people from all over. The girl on the left end is from New Orleans, our cool guy friend is from Vancouver, Canada, the girl on the right side of him is from Australia, and then there's Best Friend. So where am I??



I'm right here with my new friend from New Orleans. (The two girls from New Orleans are sisters.)

And thanks to this beautiful photograph, I am reminded of how freakin' curly my hair gets when it's wet. This is my #1 reason for hating my southern United States humid climate. Every day is a bad hair day for me!

And thus ended our day of castle fun.


We began a new day of castle exploration the very next day with Harburg Castle. This is the oldest castle in Germany. It's between 900-1000 years old!

Here's looking up at the outside walls of the fortress. We went within the walls and climbed through a tower and walked along these fortress walls. Then we went inside the castle. It was very exciting for a history nerd like me to be within such an old, historic


place.

Our tour guide told us that these spikes are the same ones that crushed down on the enemy as they tried to pass through the gates. She shared a lot of midieval war practices with us such as the slots in the wall where boiling water was poured upon the approaching enemy.





Yep, it was all very cool to me. I was very happy to be there. I am standing by the living quarters of the castle. I was beginning to wish that I had as castle, too.














You can see more of this part of the castle without me in front of it.










A view from the fortress wall.











I don't think that we were supposed to take pictures inside this castle, either but everybody else was doing it! So I did, too! This was in the main hall.

And this was the last of my castle visits in Germany. But we continued along the Romantic Road and made our way into the nearly perfectly preserved Midieval town of Rothenburg. It was awesome, but I have uploaded so many pictures to this post already. Rothenburg and Salzburg, Austria photos will have to wait to next post.

But seriously, don't you wish you had a castle?
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*If you work for the State of Bavaria, Germany, then I was just kidding. I did not take any photos within the walls of the Neuschwanstein Castle, so don't even think about confiscating my camera.